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''Pro patria mortui suntr 



E 642 
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Copy 1 



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OEATIOI^ 



PRONOCSCED BEFORE 



POST 63, 



GRIND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, 



NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 



^tt Itlemoriam, 



MAY 29th, a. D. 1869, 



By comrade A. B. ELY. 



BOSTON: 

SAMUEL CHISM, — FRANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE 

No. 134 Washington Street. 

1869. 



^Pro patria mortui suntr 



OEATIOI^ 



PRONOUNCED BEFORE 



POST 63, 



GEAND AEMY OF THE KEPUBLIC, 



NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 



l) 



i« Pcmunnm, 



MAY 29th, a. D. 1869, 




By comrade A. B. ELY. 



BOSTON: 

SAMUEL CHISM, — FRANKLIlSr PRINTING HOUSE, 

No. 134 Washington Street. 

18G9. 



OLfi .(^ ^ 






^- 



ORATION. 



In the eatly dawn of a spring day, the stillness of the 
morning air is broken by the loud shriek "of a terrified child, 
and the still louder shrieks of a frantic mother, whose little 
one has fallen into the deep waters of a rushing river. 
Many run ; but a laborer, passing to his work, hears the 
cry, and rushes to the spot. Without a moment's hesitation 
he plunges into the flood, and, at the risk of his own life, 
rescues the sinking boy, and restores him to the arms of his 
agonized parent. The deed done, he passes on ; not caring 
to stay to receive the joyful thanks of one so happily relieved 
from sorrowful bereavement. That man is a hero ! 

Evening comes. In the early twilight another sound is 
heard — the cry of " Fire ! " and the sky is reddened by 
the forked flame of the devoui'ing element. A house is 
crumbling beneath the conflagration. At an upper window 
appears a decrepit man in the agonies of helpless despair. 
A workman from a neighboring shop rushes through the 
gathering crowd, through the falling embers, through the 
blinding smoke and scorching flame, up the tottering stair- 
way, and, seizing the half lifeless form of the poor suppliant, 
brings it forth from death to life and eager friends. This 
man is another hero. 

An4 how much more heroic were these poor men than 
any of the great heroes of history who sacrificed kingdoms 
and myriads of subjects' lives to mad ambition, but never 
ran a risk themselves, for the good of others, or of man ! 

Every day witnesses, somewhere, such evidences of hero- 
ism, among the every-day people of the world. The senti- 
ment, the emotion, the impulse, the principle, prevails in 



4 Oration. 

every virtuous commumty ; and occasion only is wanted 
to call it out into vigorous exercise. The more virtuous, 
the more industrious a people, the more heroism will they 
display to the world. The heroism of the Swiss mountain- 
eers, the Scotch Covenanters, the English Puritans, the 
Dutch Republicans, the New-England Fathers, is of that 
lofty type which is hallowed by honest emotions and truth- 
ful sentiments. A true heroism is that which springs from 
a generous impulse, which is actuated by a noble principle, 
and which seeks a good result. It needs all this to give it 
stability and strength, and perseverance to the end. 

Patriotism will ever engender heroism. The patriot will 
be a hero if he has the opportunity ; and the noblest heroes 
in profane history have ever been the best patriots, — self- 
sacrificing, earnest, honest, true. Patriotism exists in all 
communities ; but that which strives to secure and perpetuate 
liberty, and which grows and flourishes under free institu- 
tions, is of the highest type, having the highest intelligence 
and the highest aim. The patriot hero, in a free land, is 
the highest and best type of heroic man. 

The hero need be no great man, as the world goes. 
Heroism has made some men great ; but more men have 
been made great by the heroism of the lowly, than by their 
own. It is the heroism of the people that makes a nation 
free, and the patriotism of the people that keeps it fi.-ee. It 
is over the heroism and the patriotism of the masses, that 
the few stride into position and power ; and it is only from 
the rich field of the heroic dust of many, that the leading 
few pluck the flowers of success, and the fruits of honor and 
renown. 

The love of country is a sentiment of great power, wield- 
ing great control over human hearts and minds. But when 
that innate feeling is enlightened and strengthened with the 
knowledge, that the country of one's love is the dwelling- 
place of liberty, and the home of the free, the power of that 
sentiment is greater, and higher, and holier, and becomes a 



# Oration. 5 

fixed principle of honest, earnest, self-sacrificing, patriotic, 
heroic action. The sufferings and sacrifices of our revolu- 
tionary sires have ennobled, and made holy, such love, such 
heroism, such patriotism, in the history of our country, and 
in the hearts of all our people. 

The sturdy yeomen who fought behind the stone walls of 
Lexington, and the rail fences of Bunker Hill, who dug 
trenches on Dorchester Heights, who swam the icy waters 
of the Delaware, and tracked with their blood the snows of 
Valley Forge, were the unnamed patriot heroes to whom a 
nation owes its liberties, and the world the example and in- 
fluence of a free people rejoicing in the blessings of self- 
government, and republican institutions. The homely names 
of those self-sacrificinsr asserters and defenders of our coun- 
try's liberties and our people's rights have passed away from 
memory, and history gives them no place among its cata- 
logues ; yet, nevertheless, the burden and heat of the great 
contest were borne by them, and the glories of the great 
result were wrought out by them, equally with the men 
whose names stand emblazoned among the great ones of the 
earth. ^No flowers were strewn upon their graves ; but 
from out their dust have sprung the bright flowers and rich 
harvests of civil and religious liberty, of social and domestic 
happiness, and of personal and communal enjoyment, of 
which we, in common with all • our fellow-citizens, this day 
partake. Not unfrequently the mean man, simple and un- 
known, stood firm in his integrity, while the mighty man, 
who had made a name in history, fell before temptation, like 
Lucifer, son of the morning. How much nobler were the 
soldiers Paulding, Van Wart, and Williams, than the officer 
and general, Arnold ; and how much firmer to principle the 
common men, than the petted son of fortune's favors, in this 
memorable instance ! Let us ever gratefully acknowledge 
our obligations to our patriot sires, while we rejoice in the 
glad heritage won for us by their heroic deeds. To them 
we owe the foundations of all our civil and political bless- 



6 Oration. 

iiigs. Their sturdy, steady, honest, Christian spirits stand 
by us even now ; and whatever there may be of stability 
and integrity in our institutions, we owe to them and their 
sound practical knowledge of humanity, and its needs. 

The people, the people, — simple-minded, true-hearted, 
honest, earnest. Christian people, who founded and enjoyed 
the meeting-houses, and the school- houses of the land; who 
loved liberty because they loved the Lord, and loved educa- 
tion because they loved liberty, — the intelligent, educated, 
common people, were the patriot heroes to whom we owe 
so much, — sons of sufiering sires, sires of enjoying sons. 
How great and glorious the heritage Avhich they acquired, 
and, having acquired, transmitted unimpaired to their de- 
scendants ! Our revolutionary patriots had passed away ; 
their sons had lived and died in the full enjoyment of the 
priceless blessings which their fathers had fought to win, 
and, winning, had bequeathed to their posterity ; their 
grandsons had come to man's estate ; when, suddenly, in the 
midst of a tranquillity the most undisturbed, of a peace 
the most profound, and a prosperity the most unexampled, 
and while in the enjoyment of civil and religious, personal 
and political, social and donicstic rights, privileges, and 
liberties, such as the world had never before or elsewhere 
seen, dull reverberations from the far distance, wakening the 
sleeping echoes, and ominous whisperings gathering in the 
silent air, roused the people from their security to a sense 
of danger, as the rumblings of an earthquake fill the heart 
with terror and alarm. Like Minerva from the head of 
Jove, red-handed war had sprung into being, full armed, 
from the seething brains of treasonable insubordination, and 
selfish ambition ; and the republic found its very existence 
endangered ere it was aware of the Catalinarian conspiracy 
that had plotted its overthrow. A social evil, existing before 
the revolution, fostered and cherished by sectional pride and 
lust of power, had engendered a political evil after the 
revolution, which, growing in arrogance and strength, and 



Oration. 7 

choosing " to rule in hell rather than serve in heaven," had 
sought to erect an aristocratic empire upon the ruins of a 
democratic government. The system of slavery, begotten 
of the evil desires of a depraved humanity, endowed with 
meretricious but most seductive charms, and burning with evil 
passions and desires, had become the willing mistress of an 
unscrupulous polity, and had given birth and sustenance 
and strength to the arrogant doctrine of State's rights. This 
wild and wilful offspring of an unholy concubinage, reared 
in pride and self-indulgence, and mad with lustful ambition, 
in very excess of passionate desire, had sought the embraces 
of its own vile but not unwilling mother ; until, in wicked 
dalliance, had been begotten and brought forth < the full- 
grown monster, hybrid, Caliban brood of treasonable seces- 
sion. By the influence of the terrible magic of this dread 
Hecate, as if by the wand of some potent but malicious 
enchantress, it would seem as if men, within her sphere, were 
turned to beasts of prey, or worse, to fiends; Wherever 
this detestable influence had prevailed, and this great crime 
had been tolerated, patriotism seemed transformed to treason, 
and heroism to passionate delirium. 

The aspect of things was appalling. The moral tempest 
was at once howling in all its frightful force, threatening to 
ingulf and overwhelm our Avhole governmental structure. 
Good men and true stood aghast. Momentarily all hearts 
quaked. How far did this great treason extend ? Who was 
true and trusty in the great apostasy ? The nation's chief 
magistrate was hardly equal to an old woman with a broom- 
stick; while his chief advisers seemed to be but part and 
parcel of the rebel clan. Trepidation, however, lasted but 
for a moment. The cry went forth for all good men and 
true to stand by the institutions they had inherited, the 
government they had chosen, and the old flag which their 
fathers had consecrated to liberty and law, and which, so 
long as it floated to the breeze, would ever be the emblem 
and guaranty of liberty under law, and of individual rights 



8 Oration. 

under the aegis of constitutional republicanism. At this cry, 
all good men and true rallied to the rescue, with a patriotism 
worthy of the days of Lexington and Bunker Hill. 

Then began the great contest that was to try the stability 
of our free institutions, and the tenacity and strength of our 
federal constitution. " Michael and his angels fought against 
the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels." It 
was truth against error, liberty against slavery. It was the 
Roundhead against the Cavalier, the Ironsides against the 
Chivalry. The far back battle-fields of Marston Moor, and 
Naseby, and Worcester, and the nearer fighting-grounds of 
Bunker Hill, and Trenton, and Saratoga, and Yorktown, 
now bore glorious fruit. The blood shed then was not shed 
in vain. The liberties won, and the institutions, civil and 
religious, planted by the fathers, now brought forth rich 
results of self-sacrificing patriotism and heroic deeds. The 
spirit of the fathers lived in the sons, and the noble youth 
showed themselves worthy of the noble heritage they had 
received from a noble ancestry. The farm, the workshop, 
the factory, the covmting-house, the school, the office, con- 
tributed alike to the gathering hosts that assembled to vin- 
dicate the majesty of the law, and the honor of the nation. 
Then did it appear that our constitution was fit and flexible 
for the emergency; that it possessed powers necessary for its 
own protection ; that the great fundamental principle and 
law of self-preservation underlay its whole fabric, and fur- 
nished it with all the powers necessary for the vindication 
of its own rights, and the preservation and protection of the 
national government reared upon its broad foundations. 
Weak or wicked strict constructionists, — and there were 
both, — were taught the great lesson, that, with nations, as 
with individuals, self-preservation is the great controlling 
element and law of existence. It was determined that the 
republic should receive no detriment, and the will and the 
power both proved ample. 
\ Who shall recount, in sufficiently inspiring words, the 



Oration, 9 

incidents, and who shall panit, in sufficiently glowing colors, 
the scenes of ioxxx years' conflict, — determination on the 
one hand, desperation on the other, — the sunHght and 
the shadow, the calm and the storm, the sorrow and the 
joy, elation and depression, success and defeat, commingle 
like the phantasmagoria of a feverish dream. 

At one time, the weary march in dust and heat, or 
drenching rain, or deathly damp of miasmatic dews, debili- 
tating mind and body, strewing the roadsides and filling the 
hospitals with disease and death. Alas ! how many eyes 
grew dim, and hoAV many pulses fluttered and grew still, 
from want of care and proper tending ! and how many 
fainted and fell by the wayside, longing, with patriotic fer- 
vor, to do heroic deeds, in vain ! Alas ! the feeble, stagger- 
ing, straying, overburdened stripling, — a father's pride, a 
mother's joy, — who started forth with flushed cheek and 
sparkling eye, thinking, hoping in his patriotic heart, to do 
some noble deed for his country, that should thrill the 
hearts of loved ones at home ; but who yielded up his 
young life in the wet woods or fallow field, while the hurry- 
ing march went on, or in the halting camp-ground when the 
day was done ! He was but a soldier ; yet had he sacrificed 
his all upon his country's altar ; and no less patriotic, no 
less heroic he, than if the fickle goddess, Fortune, had 
placed him at the head of the corps, of which he died an 
unknown member. 

At another time, in gallant array, with swinging step to 
martial music's thrilling tones, the long-drawn columns 
thread their way across the sunny slopes, along the grassy 
glades, through the open orchards, and beside the brawling 
brooks, into the deep shadows of the waving woods ; and 
the tramp of many thousand feet answers to the sound of 
many thousand voices, as the chanting chorus of the march- 
ing song echoes along the hills, and dies away in the distant 
valleys. And then comes the bivouac under the silvery 
sheen of the mounting moon, when the jocund jest goes 



10 Oration. 

round, and laughing lips echo and re-echo the* gladness of 
happy hearts. To-morrow's sun may bring a battle ; but, 
if so, to-morrow's sun Avill show what heroic deeds patriotic 
hearts will urge those gallant men to dare, and, daring, do. 

Again in prison pens, and deadly dens of human hells, dev- 
ilish devices of infernal fiends in human form, noble souls 
peak and pine in dull despair, starved and tortured unto 
death. Alas that human nature should ever, in this en- 
lightened land, become so depraved and debased, as to com- 
mit such hideous wrong ! Alas that such savage deeds of 
heartless cruelty, should spring from even such a treacher- 
ous, traitorous source ! But alas, and alas, that stalwart men 
and hopeful youths, soldiers of the great republic, glowing 
with patriotic fire, eager for heroic action, ready at their 
country's call, and faithful to their country's cause, safe in 
the march, safe in the deadly camp, safe through the battle, 
should be called to endure such torments, wilfully, persist- 
ently inflicted by a foe boasting of a chivalric spirit and a 
spotless honor, as if " donning the livery of heaven to serve 
the devil in " ! Who can fathom the heart-burnings, the 
agonizing longings, the dull despair, succeeding the loss of all 
hope, that rent and crushed and killed those patient heroes, 
who endured and suffered heat and cold, and hunger and 
thu'st, and brutal treatment, and disease and death, as prison- 
ers of war, at the behest of that Caliban brood of traitorous 
secession. Many a John Brown's body lies mouldering in the 
ground, tortured and sacrificed to a cruel and untimely end, 
by the bloodthirsty offspring of the incestuous bed of slavery 
and state's rights. Who shall answer for these inhuman 
murders ? When in the course of all time shall the civil 
and military heads and commanders of the great treason wipe 
out the damned spot? Shall the head of the civil govern- 
ment, or the commander, of the military forces, of the false 
and fraudulent confederacy, ever live in history, otherwise 
than as responsible for the atrocities of Libby, and Belle 
Isle, and Andersonville ? Let their names stand in execra- 



Oratiaii. 11 

tion Avith those Avhom treason has made monsters, and let 
the memory of their monster deeds avenge the awful wrong, 
and furnish righteous retribution to the end of time. 

And still again the dread array of serried ranks, drawn up 
in line of battle, " goes in " to meet the foe in deadly con- 
flict. The thundering roar of cannon, the rattling crash of 
musketry, the shrieks of shells, the whistle of balls, the rush 
of men, and the beating charge of horse, and shouts, and 
groans, and smoke, and fire, fill the air, with what would 
seem confusion worse confounded. And then the lull and 
ending of the strife, and the quiet moon looks down upon 
the stricken field. How many gallant hearts have done 
their last devoir ! How many sought to win renown, and 
won an unknown soldier's grave ! How many thought of 
home, and loved ones far away, as they plunged into the 
thick of battle ; and how many breathed a last prayer for 
the dear objects of their earthly love ! Youth was no pro- 
tection from the singing ball, nor manhood from the burst- 
ing shell. How many anxious fathers, how many tender 
wives and mothers, oh how many hearts waited long and 
waited in vain for tidings from dear ones, whom, with heroic 
self-sacrifice, they had sent from the delights of home to the 
battle-field ! And when at last it came to be believed, that 
death had met the loved ones and claimed them as his own, 
how many hearts mourned, and mourning sickened, and sick- 
ening died ! Alas ! the battle-fields of war have peopled 
many a " God's acre " with forms that never joined in the 
march, or heard the battle-cry ; and the sod of many a coun- 
try churchyard has been disturbed to receive the remains of 
loving ones, as surely killed at home, by the shock of armies, 
as if pierced in person on the stricken field. And many 
now go mourning all their days, like " Rachel weeping for 
her children, and would not be comforted, because they were 
not." 



12 Oration. 

I. 

The drnm beat alarum, the long roll was sounded, — 
Still wayworn and weary, we roused from our slumber ; 

And muskets were shouldered, too soon to be grounded 
By many a hero from out of our number. 

II. 

And pistols were loaded and sword-belts were tightened, 
And carefully handled War's dread ammunition; 

And canteens were lifted and knapsacks were lightened, 
As onward we hastened to find our position. 

III. 

The mists on the valley were quietly sleeping, 

The light scarcely showing the gray of the morning 

That up from the eastward seemed lazily creeping, 
As, suddenly rousing, we heard the harsh warning. 

IV. 

We mounted the hillside, our skirmishers feeling 
Their way through the orchard that skirted the valley ; 

A shot in the distance more surely revealing 
The place of encounter, the halt, and the rally. 

V. 

Our columns, advancing, now formed line of battle ; 

The booming of cannon that struck on our hearing, 
And, following quickly, the musketry's rattle. 

Foretelling us fairly the strife we were nearing. 

VI. 

The batteries opened with death-dealing thunder. 
With shells screaming wildly and canister loaded, 

The thick clouds of battle dividing asunder. 
And dealing mad havoc where'er they exploded. 

VII. 

And in we went firmly, now loading, now firing, 
Now shouting together the war-cry in chorus, 

Regardless of danger, untlinching, untiring. 

The balls singing round us, the shells bursting o'er us. 

VIII. 

The din of the conflict seemed nevermore ending, — 
The shouts of the living, the groans of the dying, 

The harshest of discord seemed evermore blending. 
As volley to volley seemed ever replying. 



Oration. 13 



The ardor of fighting resistlessly bore us 

Still onward and upward, with passionate feeling ; 

The long line of battle retreating before us, 

Our strength, and their weakness, seemed surely revealing. 

X. 

'Twas then that the bugle was heard in the distance, 
The clatter of horse-hoofs went by like a torrent ; 

The rush of the squadrons bore down all resistance, 
Like death-dealing doomsters, with merciless warrant. 

XI. 

The battle was over, the last call was sounded ; 

Returned to our quarters we heavily slumbered. 
While details went out for the dead and the wounded. 

And missing and lost ones were carefully numbered. 

XII. 

The best and the bravest were missed from their stations, 
But War's stern demandings gave no time for sorrow ; 

The orders for marching hushed all lamentations. 
To-day's work requiring more work for to-morrow. 

XIII. 

Such, then, was the battle, and such is the story, — 
We went in and conquered, with courage of heroes ; 

We covered somebodies all over with glory, — 

Perchance they were Caesars, they might have been Neroes. 

XIV. 

But whoever mounted o'er us to distinction, 

We followed our duty with manly endeavor. 
Our free institutions to save from extinction : 

Then shout we in chorus, Our country forever ! 

And then at last, the victory won, the enemy overcome, 
is the glad march homeward. The long columns, with 
joyous hearts and elastic steps, with banners flying and 
drums beating, wind over hill and dale to the stirring notes 
of "Home, Sweet Home!" and, forgetful of past hardships 
and sufferings and sacrifices, the battle-scarred heroes look 
forward to find sweet peace and comfort in the glad em- 
braces of the loved ones left behind, whose prayers and 



14 Oration. 

tears and anxious watchings have followed them, step by 
step, through all their many perils. " Weeping may endure 
for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." 

The war ended, the soldiers of the army of the republic 
came to be mustered out. The old time regiments returned 
to the old time places, and the old time crowds flocked to 
see the old time faces. The old time faces ? Not all — not 
all ! There were great gaps in the lines. Maiiy thousancl,s 
of the old faces were missing from the old haunts, sleeping 
under the sods of the cemeteries and battle-grounds of the 
war. Hardship, and disease, and deadly wounds, had more 
than decimated the ranks ; while, of those that came again 
to the old homeSj many were scarred, and maimed, and 
bruised, and broken down. Proudly did the battle-marked 
braves bear the tattered flags that bore witness to the heroic 
prowess of the patriot hearts that beat beneath their folds. 
What tales, more eloquent than words, were told by those 
serried ranks as they passed along, — tales of self-Sacrifice 
for a country's welfare and a country's life ! Home was 
doubly dear, because the great civil and governmental bless- 
ings that made horhe so worthy had been rescued from great 
peril, and preserved intact, at great personal risk and suffer- 
ing. Down under the surface was a great moral sentiment 
that ennobled every heart. How much more we love the 
friend for whom we have suffered and sacrificed ! How 
much more we are ready to dare and do for the cause 
for which we have labored long and faithfully ! Work 
in a good cause ennobles the heart that undertakes it, and 
strengthens the soul that brings it to a successful end. And 
so the war-worn veterans came home, with the grateful 
sense of having accomplished a good work. The army was 
disbanded, and the soldier was again a citizen. Back to the 
farm, and the workshop, and the factory, and the counting- 
room, and the school, and the office, went the volunteers ; 
and all the industrial avenues of every-day life were again 
filled with crowds of busy men of peace, who had but just 



Oration. 15 

now laid aside the panoply of war. The great body politic, 
that had furnished forth its million of patriotic souls for the 
dread mission of an awful conflict, again received into its 
embraces the returning heroes of a hundred stricken fields ; 
and the million of warlike men, flushed with victory, win- 
ning los and honor by deeds of endurance and of daring, 
and surrounded by all the peculiar influences of military 
associations and armed power, fell peacefully back into the 
quiet routine of civil life, as if no war had been. The 
work of peace is being done to-day, as if the work of war, 
now past, were but the visions of a dream in the night 
gone by. 

Twice before, in the history of the world, had armies 
been suddenly disbanded without tumult ; and twice before 
had such armies doffed the panoply of war, and donned the 
habiliments of peace, without a murmur ; and, by becoming 
good citizens, had vindicated their character as true patriots. 
The soldier was a citizen before and while a soldier ; and, 
ceasing to be a soldier, he remained a citizen. His country 
in peril, he seized his sword, and rushed to the rescue ; his 
country safe, he laid down his weapon, and returned to 
daily work. Twice before had this occurred. The Iron- 
sides of Cromwell and the English Commonwealth, and the 
Continentallers of Washington and the American revolution, 
were fitting progenitors of the Grand Army of the Republic. 

The reason of this lies in the character of the men, and of 
the institutions for which they fought. Educated, thinking 
men, appreciating the great questions at issue, and under- 
standing the great objects of the strife, — they entered into 
the contest calmly and considerately, under a sense of obli- 
gation, and in obedience to a call of duty. Great moral and 
political questions — questions of personal rights, of civil 
liberty, of constitutional government, and of governmental 
policy, aye, of national existence — were involved; and, in 
view of these, the innate, instinctive sense of obligation 
pressed its claims ; and I ought begat I must, and I must, I 



16 Oration. 

will. These were men of the best type ; and the praying, 
psahn-singmg Ironsides, Avho felt they were doing God's Avill 
and their own duty, as soldiers fighting for civil and religious 
liberty under the great captain of English freedom, knew 
also that they were doing God's will and their own duty 
when, their great captain dead, their fighting days gone by, 
they became peaceful and industrious citizens of the land. 
The same sentiment which made them good soldiers made 
them good citizens and neighbors and friends. The patri- 
otism of such men is founded upon deep and fixed princi- 
ples, and their heroism is the good result of honest thoughts 
and stern determinations. Hence, their moral force is ir- 
resistible, and their moral influence good, whenever and 
wherever duty calls. 

And this is none the less true because these men, with 
few exceptions, remain unknown to fame. Jack Mower, and 
Tom Planer, and Bob Spinner, and Jim Counter, and Fred 
Scholar, and Frank Writer, privates in the great army, were 
equally patriots and heroes, intelligent and honest and ear- 
nest, with those who, under Providence, reached high com- 
mand ; and equally to them, as to the others, will the glad 
verdict come, "Well done, good and faithful servants." The 
safety of the nation depends upon the intelligence and integ- 
rity of the people ; and where the masses are honest and 
educated and true, the country and its priceless liberties will 
be safe in peace or war, but not otherwise. May the God 
of our fathers spare our liberties and our free institutions, 
to us and to our children, to the remotest generation. 

The living from those that went out from us and marched, 
and camped, and fought, and saved our country from dis- 
memberment, have returned, and are with us in our daily 
walks and avocations, and daily rejoice in the personal en- 
joyment of the fruits of their labors. The warlike toils and 
sufferings of yesterday are forgotten in the peaceful pleasures 
of to-day. But the dead, the heroic dead ! the dead of the 
march, and the camp, and the hospital, and the prison-pen. 



Oration. 17 

and the battle-field ; who went out from us flush with life 
and hope, and eager to win renown ; who left the dear de- 
lights of home with earnest wish to do their country ser- 
vice, and met the dread hardships of war with patriotic zeal 
for their country's welfare ; but who fell in the clear morn- 
ing or bright noontide of life, conscious of no victorious 
results, but only conscious of having answered the call of 
duty, and of having fulfilled that duty to the end, — what 
shall be said of them ? Shall they pass unmourned, unre- 
membered, unhonored ? Was their life not patriotic ? Was 
their death not heroic ? Were their deeds of no avail ? 
Was naught accomplished by them ? Were they not patri- 
ots, and do patriots live for naught ? Were they not heroes, 
and do heroes fall for naught ? Are the leaves that die of 
no account, and those that live only of value ? Is the spar- 
row that falls lost, and only that which flies away found ? 
*' Not one of them shall fall on the ground without your 
Father." ( There is no safety without danger. There is no 
success without strife. There is no salvation without sacri- 
fice ; no life without death. We inherit the legacies of the 
dead, in all that is great and glorious and good, among the 
living. Liberty and all the blessings of a free government 
are the fruits of the blood of patriots and heroes. " The 
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." And from 
the atoning blood of the Lamb of God comes our only hope 
of heaven and a blissful immortality. Who shall say then 
that the life of the meanest soldier Avho fell in the war for 
the Union was sacrificed in vain ? The precise necessity of 
that loss in the great plan of Divine Providence we may not 
understand ; but we feel assured that, in the great conflict, 
such necessity existed, and was, somehow, important in 
bringing about the grand result. 

'Tis not the clay that struts to-day, 

And fills a grave to-morrow, 
That makes the man, nor ever can, 

For loss of whom we sorrow ; 



18 



Oration. 



But 'tis the soul controls the whole, 
And crowns with grace and beauty, 
. The humblest man, who lives his span, 
And dies, true love to duty. 

At the close of the war it was thought well for officers 
and soldiers to form an organization for the purpose of cher- 
ishing the patriotic spirit and emotions which led them to 
join the "army, — of keeping alive the pleasant memories 
and associations attending their connection with the army, 
and of affording mutual aid and assistance after leaving the 
army. This organization was formed under the name of 
the Grand Army of the Republic, and is intended to em- 
brace any reputable and honest member of the grand army 
of the Union during the war in suppression of the great 
rebellion. To-day the enrolled members of the Grand 
Army of the Kepublic meet to commemorate the dead braves 
who fell in the discharge of their duty as soldiers of the 
republic in her late struggle for existence ; and to strew 
their graves with flowers, in memory of their patriotism, and 
their heroic devotioii to the cause of liberty and good gov- 
ernment. 

As a Post of this Grand Army, we meet here to-day in 
discharge of a duty ; mournful as we think of the departed 
as our friends and neighbors, but grateful as we think of the 
cause and results of their sacrifice. 

^^ Pro ijatria mortui sunt." 



ORLUSTUS J. ADAMS, 
JOHN ALLEN, 
GEORGE BAKER, 
LEMUEL F. BASSETT, 
GEORGE H. BAXTER, 
WILLIAM R. BENSON, 
THOMAS L. BRACK ETT, 
LEROY S. BRIDGMAN, 
EBEN R. BUCK, 
REUBEN L. BUTLER, 
LOWELL M. BRECK, 



JOSEPH B. BRECK, 
THOMAS W. CLIFFORD, 
FERDINAND CHAMPION, 
GILBERT A. CHENEY, 
SETH COUSENS, 
FREDERICK A. CUTTER, 
THOMAS DURAN, 
WILLIAM FELL, 
WILLIAM N. FREEMAN, 
JOHN FORSYTH, JR., 
WILLIAM L. GILMAN, 



Oration. 10 

PATRICK HAGGERTY, WILLIAM B. NEFF, 

HENRY C. HARRINGTON, THOMAS C. NORCHOSS, 

WILLIAM A. HARRIS, ALBERT F. POTTER, 

LEOPOLD II. HAWKES, JOSEPH R. PRATT, 

THOMAS L. JACKSON, WILLIAM L. PARKER, 

WILLIAM H. JOHNSON, JOHN B. ROGERS, 

ALBERT A. KENDALL, WILLIAM H. RICE, 

GEORGE KIMBALL, WILLIAM RAND, Jr., 

HENRY S. LAWSON, GEORGE H. RICH, 

ELLIOT LITTLEFIKLD, MATTHEW T. H. ROFFE, 

JEFFERSON LARKIN, DANIEL SANGER, 

CHARLES A. LEAVITT, EDWARD II. TOOMBS, 

EDWARD LYMAN, LUCIUS F. TROWBRIDGE, 

JOHN MYER, Jr., HARVEY L. VINTON, 

JOHN MCQUADE, MICHAEL VAUGHAN, 

MICHAEL MARTIN, EBEN WHITE, 

DANIEL H. MILLER, CHARLES WARD, 

GEO. H, NICHOLS, GRAFTON H. WARD, 

STEPHEN L. NICHOLS, SAMUEL F. WOODWARD, 
ALFRED WASHBURN, 

went out with us, but returned not. They fell by the way- 
side ere the goal was reached. Their lives, their sacred 
honor, were pledged to redeem their native land from 
treason. Their lives they lost ; their honor they kept in- 
tact. Thank God, we lived to return to our glad homes ! 
Thank God, they died in a glorious cause, in the fulfilment 
of an acknowledged duty, and in the full consciousness of 
being actuated by heroic principle. 

When, on our return, the roll was called, they answered 
not to their names. Another call had reached their ears, 
and they had been drafted out to serve elsewhere than here. 
We missed their pleasant faces on the march ; Ave missed 
their pleasant voices in the camp ; we missed them on the 
field ; and we mourned them as one mourneth the friend 
that sticketh closer than a brother. But alas ! there were 
those that missed them more. Father and mother, and wife 
and child had watched and waited long, only to find that to 
them no loved one would return. But did we or they 
mourn that the sacrifice had been made ? Were any sorry 
that they had sent out their dear ones to the work ? Rather, 



20 Oration. 

in the grateful joy at the great result, so prayed and striven 
for, were they not glad that they had been able to contribute 
something to the glorious common cause, a cause evermore 
the dearer for the dear price they paid? When they and we 
remembered how much Avas purchased for the price, sad 
hearts became resigned, and sorrowing ones looked up and 
smiled. They were the contributions of a true patriotism 
upon the altar of civil and rehgious liberty, and in support 
of a cause whose failure would have brought dismay and 
unutterable woe upon all our households. Standing above 
the dust of the departed, it is for us to remember and emu- 
late the patriotism that sent them to the war, and to honor 
the heroism that led them to untimely death. It is for us to 
call to mind the causes that required such sacrifice of life, 
and to guard, with tenfold jealous care, the honor and integ- 
rity of a country saved from such danger at such heavy cost. 

Personally, it is for us to ponder our own readiness to 
meet the order that shall transfer us, from the ranks of the 
living, to the army of the dead. A story is told of a man 
who, having been a soldier and a scout in the East and a 
pioneer and trapper in the West, at length, far out upon the 
prairies, grew old and died. A single-hearted, honest, 
truthful man, he lived with the light he had, according to 
the homely teachings of his boyhood, and the sense of right 
which seemed innate in his simple soul. When the end 
drew near, the old man sat with bated breath and listening 
ear, as if waiting calmly for the last summons, when, sud- 
denly raising his tall form to its full height, as if he heard 
the Great Captain's call, he answered loudly, liere! and his 
spirit passed from out its tenement of clay. So may every 
soldier be ready and waiting to answer the last roll-call, 
with sense of duty done, of enlistment ended, and of name 
enrolled among the armies of the Lord. 

Many of our comrades in arms have fought their last fight 
and finished their last campaign. Not so with us. With 
some of us there are yet tediou.s marches and dreary watch- 



Oration. 21 

ings and deadly strifes in store. With some the way will 
seem long, and weary and worn we shall come to the end. 
With some the battles of life will seem but as reviews and 
dress-parades. With others the shrill bugle call will sound 
to mount and away in sudden haste, while yet strong in 
manhood's prime. Friends and comrades, are we ready ? 
In time must we volunteer for eternity, and on earth must 
we be enrolled for heaven. Then let flowers st;.-ew our 
graves, and from out our dust let blossoms spring and fruit 
grow, in figure of the life we reach through death ; for then, 
" O Death ! where is thy sting ? O Grave ! where is thy 
victory ? Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

The war against secession is ended. The power of the 
constitution to defend itself against any open attack, — its 
power of self-defence, — is vindicated ; but there is another 
war before us, more mighty than this. Foes more insidious, 
enemies more powerful, are gathering, when the great final 
test of the strength of our institutions will come, and the 
weak places of our system will be tried to the uttermost. 
Our institutions are strong, our system will stand, only so 
long as truth and righteousness prevail ; — only so long as 
the people are honest and intelligent ; — only so long as we 
conform to the great inherent and innate rule of right, which 
underlies all law, human and divine. The foes we have to 
meet are moral foes. The enemies that assail us are to be 
found in the selfish passions of a depraved human nature. 
We have to fight covetousness, we have to wage war against 
corruption and dishonesty and fraud, Avhich are to-day con- 
trolling, in many places, our legislatures, our courts, our polit- 
ical ofiices, and our ballot-boxes ; and which, under present 
appearances, will soon control them everywhere. We have 
to meet insubordination everywhere. Illegitimate combina- 
tions for control, illegitimate organizations for the accom- 
plishment of selfish objects, prevail everywhere. Monster 
monopolies, that overpower all individual responsibility and 



22 Oration. 

independence, spring up everywhere. Capital grows imperi- 
ous in its demands, because of its vast power over men ; and 
labor becomes restive and truculent, because of its numbers. 
Aristocracy of wealth seeks to establish an oligarchy of in- 
fluence ; while the democracy of poverty would force an 
equality of condition, at the risk of anarchy. 

I think it meet and proper here to raise a Avarning voice 
against such evils as threaten our common heritage, and such 
as will, render all our recent patriotic sacrifices and heroic 
deeds of no avail, unless resisted and overcome. To be 
wise in time is to be wise indeed. 

A state of war is often a hotbed for the growth of evil 
passions and evil desires ; and the results of war are often 
seen in an outcropping, and rank growth, of moral and po- 
litical evils that follow in its wake, and flourish long after 
the battle grounds have become cultivated fields. Pestilence 
and fiunine may follow Avar in morals and politics, as Avell as 
in physical matters. 

The lavish expenditures of governments, and of individ- 
uals, during the war; the lack of even a pretence of econ- 
omy on the part of those in power, and the ready answer of 
an enthusiastic people, in their generous zeal, to the most ex- 
travagant calls ; the payment of double, triple, and quadru- 
ple prices, by government, through incompetent and careless 
and dishonest officials, for the supply of government wants ; 
the sudden and easy acquisition of enormous Avealth by all 
those who had means of supplying government calls, and 
who had access to government patronage ; — has offered a 
bounty to extravagance and roguery, and has tended to de- 
stroy all sense of honesty and moral obligation. The ease 
of raising money, on mere promises to pay, led still further 
to extravagancies of expenditure, for which no decent ex- 
cuse could ever be found, until a debt was created, a great 
part of which Avas incurred to pay extraordinary, unnatural, 
unnecessary, and unjust percentages of gain and of discount; 
and this accumulating in the hands of the comparatively fcAv, 



^ Oration. 23 

to be met and paid by the imposition of taxes upon the 
many, and those taxes increased to meet the payment of im- 
proper commissions and agencies, devised and paid to enrich 
the favored few, to the wrong and injury of the many. 
When the government pays two, or three, or four prices 
for what it needs, the few get rich ; but it is at the expense 
of the many ; and the people are defrauded, and compelled 
to pay what, when they know the facts, they feel are, to a 
large extent, unjust demands. And when governnijent, to 
meet its debts, by many percentages unnecessarily, if not un- 
justly, too large, borrows money at large and' unnecessary 
discounts, and pays large and unnecessary commissions and 
agencies, it only adds so many more percentages to the bur- 
den, and so much more weight and aggravation to the wrong. 
And when, in addition to the extra percentages of gain im- 
properly allowed, and to the extra percentages of discounts 
and commissions unnecessarly submitted to and paid, it adds 
the still further extra percentage of freedom from taxation, 
and compels the people, who have had none of this extra 
gain, or discount, or commision, to pay taxes for the whole, 
including the taxes of those who hold the government se- 
curities and have had the benefit of these percentages, the 
many begin to feel that they are overburdened for the few, 
and thus somehow feel that there is great injustice some- 
where, and grow restive at what, without much consideration, 
they deem a personal wrong. When, in addition to all this, 
interest is still paid after the money has been to a large de- 
o-ree refunded ; when interest in immense sums is paid to 
individuals for the use of money actually belonging to the 
o-overnment : when enormous commissions are allowed to 
favored parties for selling government money to those who 
seek for it without asking ; when the people's money is 
squandered to pay millions in dividends to cliques and rings 
of monster corporations, which the people's generosity has 
already provided with ample funds ; and to pay the worse 
than useless, lavish squanderings of gluttonous and wine- 



24 Oration. 

bibbing legislators ; and the needless expenses of extrava- 
gant pleasure trips of legislative commitces to the ends of the 
earth, — the burden begins to become unbearable, and the 
people grow still more restive under the infliction. To pay 
a debt is one thing ; but to pay a debt incurred for extrava- 
gancies, and to continue such extravagancies while in debt, 
is another. When wicked agents squander the money, the 
principal comes to want. 

These things on the part of government or of those who 
manage its affairs, have given a few men such power of 
moneyed combination, that " one shall chase a thousand, and 
two put ten thousand to flight." The moneyed power 
becomes irresistible, and legislatures are bought and sold 
like merchaiadise in the market. Whole states are conquered 
and ruled by fraudulent votes, without the possibility of 
redress, and are made subservient to the covetous desires 
of base and wicked men, through the cupidity and greed of 
covetous legislators, without a chance of restraint. Courts 
are purchased and held, beyond the power of change and 
the reach of honest men ; while a whiskey and revenue 
ring corruptly controls the highest tribunal in the land, and 
the greatest criminal of the age escapes condemnation for a 
consideration. And when this is done, and the very villains 
that bought up the judges and paid the fees are placed in 
high positions for the express purpose of allowing them to 
steal from the people enough and more to reimburse them- 
selves for the expense ; when we have come to such a pass 
that particular classes of men are singled out as the recipients 
of special social and pecuniary favors which are denied to 
others ; when whole communities are heavily taxed, arbitra- 
rily, unjustly, wickedly, to subsidize particular associations 
or sects, who clamor, as political organizations and with 
political power, for money for clannish or sectarian and 
political purposes, — purposes at war with our very system, 
antagonistic to our free institutions, and discriminating as 
against the general rights of all ; and when an attempt is 



Oration. 25 

made by one class or sect to control the State, and to tax 
all religions to subsidize one, and thus to burden the people 
for the support and aggrandizement of a system which is 
anti-republican, and hostile to the very principles of civil 
and religious liberty ; and when this is done by bribes and 
corruptions among legislators and men in high position, one 
might well think the burden would become too grievous t-o 
be borne, and cry, " O Lord, how long ! " 

Hardly any man can aspire to an office unless he is ready 
and willing to spend money to procure it ; and few men 
seek office, maless to make it pay. Formerly, in seeking 
after office, the cannibal crowd looked to devour their 
enemies ; now they ruthlessly seek to feed on their own 
friends and relations, and wrongs innumerable are perpe- 
trated to gratify the hungry horde. The people have 
become the bond-slaves of caucus managers, and central 
committees, and delegations, who concoct every thing, and 
control every thing. The rich man grows richer, while the 
poor man makes little or no head^vay. The old equality of 
condition that formerly so happily prevailed, and was one 
of the greatest and best elements of freedom and stability, 
and that found among us so few poor and so few rich, has 
passed away, and times of great inequalities are at hand ; 
coming, too, when no strong, hereditary government, with 
standing armies, can keep the peace, if the people, in whom 
the power lies, choose not to have it so. 

Labor in this country is a political power ; a power to 
be wielded and used for political purposes ; a power in 
the aggregate irresistible. And in so far as it is lacking in 
intelligence and honesty ; in culture and education, intel- 
lectual and moral ; in patriotism, unselfish and self-sacri- 
ficing ; and in those broad, and solid, and comprehensive, 
and common-sense, and practical views of men and things, 
and their relative relations, which can come only from 
education, and study, and earnest thought, and integrity of 
purpose, — it will prove a power for mischief, rather than 

4 



26 Oration. 

good, a power to be swayed by narrow views, and super- 
ficial considerations, and mercenary motives. But it is a 
power of mighty force ; one not to be despised or disre- 
garded, but rather to be educated and conciliated, and 
wisely and honestly dealt with. It is the power which is to 
try the strength of our system, whenever, conscious of its 
strength, combined and organized, it shall cease to be Chris- 
tian and subordinate, and shall become infidel and licentious. 
It should not, therefore, be left to itself; for ignorance and 
selfishness never produce good fruit, but only vice and crime. 
Neither should it be left to the leadership of demagogues 
and small politicians, who will plot only mischief, and will 
be the first to betray the real rights of those whom they have 
duped into danger. Wealth, and education, and position 
should seek to conciliate, and ameliorate, and ennoble, and 
elevate labor, by honestly respecting its rights, by yielding 
to its just demands, by honoring its deserving children, and 
by imparting to its followers intellectual and moral advan- 
tages, which shall engender self-respect and virtuous emula- 
tion, in view of high reward. 

The poor man cannot, in very many cases, get his rights in 
court, because the cost is too great ; and he submits to 
extortion and loss for very lack of means to vindicate his 
cause ; and particularly so when moneyed combinations wish 
to appropriate his labor or his brains, to enrich themselves, 
without any adequate compensation to him. Labor finds 
itself at constant war with capital, because capital demands 
extravagant percentages of gain, which in the end the 
laborer must contribute to pay. Hence, his necessaries of 
life enhance in value beyond his wages, and he grows res- 
tive, and seeks to force a change by the use of means of 
very questionable, if not of very dangerous tendencies. 
Bad men everywhere foster the bad passions of the people, 
from bad motives, and for bad ends ; and weak men, easily 
prejudiced, easily excited, pull down what they cannot 
rebuild, and in thinking to " escape the ills they feel, fly to 
ills they know not of." Weak men, of narrow scope and 



Oration. 27 

comprehension, mere politicians, are put in positions of 
influence and power, and are expected to devise Avays to 
meet these evils and these tendencies, without ability to 
appreciate the danger, or genius to conceive a remedy, or 
capacity to array and control the means necessary for the 
emergency. 

The rich men and the managers of combined capital, 
seemingly unaware of the danger, bate no jot of their re- 
quirements, make no relaxation of their rates, make no con- 
cessions to the growing sentiment; and the political mana- 
gers and officials, who must be either men of wealth or the 
servants of such, careless or blind, spend their time in party 
manipulations and political manoeuvres, and in playing for 
purely political or pecuniary ends, instead of seeking, like 
honest men, or like wise and far-seeing men, to protect and 
enhance the industrial interests of the country. If they 
attempt to do any thing for the cause of labor, it is, as dem- 
agogues, by appealing to the passions, or by catering to skin- 
deep wants of men, in some Ioav and superficial Avay, that 
evinces small comprehension of causes, and less foresight of 
results. 

There is a feverish excitement all abroad that bodes no 
good. The many will think that, by change, they have 
much to gain, but naught to lose ; and changes, once begun, 
will be the more violent and destructive, because ill directed 
and uncertain. We have got past the days of control by 
the wisest and the best, and we must pay the penalty by 
and by. Government is looked upon as something outside 
of and separate from the people ; as a power to be resisted, 
or to be srot at and controlled, in other interests than those 
of the people. Capital and labor, which should harmonize, 
and think and act for the common good of both, in order to 
secure the welfare of each, are made antagonistic, by wilful- 
ness on the one hand, and ignorance on the other. The great 
problem of labor, and its relations to capital and to govern- 
ment, is not to be wrought out by fractions of a day's time, 
or percentages of a day's service; but by deep and earnest 



28 Ovation. 

considerations as to what will best make labor honored and 
respected, by making It honest and intelligent and manly and 
Christian, and as to what will best make labor remunerative, 
and give it constant and healthful exercise, and v/ill make it 
happiest and holiest, by making it prosperous and educated, 
and its offspring healthful and industrious and intellectual 
and noble, as good citizens of a glorious republic. The 
great problem of capital, and its relations to labor and to 
government, is not to be Avrought out by increases of inter- 
est and diminutions of wages ; but by deep and broad and 
honest considerations as to what shall enable capital to con- 
tribute most to the general welfare of the people, and to the 
protection of the rights of all ; and as to what will conduce 
to the commercial, mechanical, manufacturing, and industrial 
interests of the country, by giving constant and remunerative 
employment to all, by rewarding honest toil and encouraging 
honest ambition ; and as to what shall tend to perpetuate 
our free institutions in the hands and control of a free and 
enlightened, an honest, industrious, and Christian working 
people. Labor must cease to regard capital as its enemy, 
and capital must cease to regard labor as its tool ; and the 
capitalist and laborer must act in friendly concert, as those 
who may change relations with the changing years. 

I apprehend that the true interests and welfare of the 
republic are in more danger to-day than at any time during 
the war ; and in the contest that is to come, between the 
true and the false, the honest and the dishonest, the shallow 
and the profound, the visionary and the practical, the subor- 
dinate Christian and the insubordinate infidel, liberty and 
license, — the cause of civil and religious liberty, of rational 
Christian liberty, of liberty under law, of honest. God- 
fearing, truth-loving liberty, will be lost or won. The 
beacon lights of history, sacred and profane, are before us : 
but what nation ever profited by the experience of another ? 
Our hopes must rest in the patriotism, the intelligence, the 
honesty, the Christianity of the people, and in the goodness 
and mercy of Almighty God, to whom be glory, world with- 
out end. 




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